Somethingtothinkabout
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I see that there are plenty of questions regarding this already, so I am sorry for posting this, but I don't fully understand some things and can't find a few others so I feel it would be best to ask here. Sorry if most (or all) of these questions have already been posted before.
I am currently in year 1 of undergraduate medicine in Europe, but I've always had the goal of working as a doctor in Australia. I considered doing medical school in Australia, but as I didn't have PR and had no way of getting it, I figured the school was impossible to afford and instead went to a university in my country. After further research this year, I fear that I might have made a mistake in choosing to go into medicine instead of a different undergraduate degree, one that I like and is also on the skilled independent visa list of jobs. I feel like it would have been a better investment to do one of those degrees / get a job in university in the same field to be able to apply for a skilled independent visa upon completion and thus get affordable medical school in Australia. While I don't know if this is actually true, I realised this too late into the year to be able to apply for a different degree next year. So I am stuck doing undergraduate medicine abroad as of now.
Assuming I do do a medical degree in my home country and then decide to come into Australia the harder way, would it actually be possible to get into any good residency? I somewhat understand that you need to complete some tests and an internship and that they are hard to get without PR, this being before being able to go into a specific residency, but I keep hearing that almost every spot is already filled, just by the home/international students who graduated from Australian universities alone. While I do think I would like some competitive fields, such as neurosurgery, most of the other fields that I think I like are in research, especially ones like neurology and pathology. I couldn't find any information regarding competitiveness of research residencies in regards to international students. Is it even possible to get into such a residency as one? Does anyone know how competitive admissions for these are? Do hospitals have a list of available residencies, as I saw a few in the main cities and it definitely seems to me like there are less options than were available on the US hospital pages. Also are all residencies available for international students, or are certain ones restricted even if they weren't already filled by Australian students.
Another question I have regards the part where any international student, even one who completed their degree within Australia, has to do rural work for some years before being allowed to practise elsewhere. My first question is does this exclude all cities? I recall seeing somewhere, for example, that all of Northern Territory is counted as an area of need in regards to this, even the large city of Darwin. While I am not sure if this is true or not, does this restriction apply to having to complete the residency in such an area as well, or is this after its completion? How would one learn a specific residency when restricted to a rural area, let alone be able to practise it? I am assuming a neurosurgeon would not have much opportunity to practise their field at all. Would they be forced to practise general medicine during those years? I ask because, honestly, for me being a GP is currently nearest the bottom of my list of choices.
This mostly concludes my list of questions. Sorry for posting this wall of text and all of these questions, most of which have doubtlessly been asked before, I really should have asked for advice before making the mistake of applying in the first place. Thank you for reading and I would deeply appreciate any answers or advice you could give, as I am uncertain of the correct path to take as of now.
I am currently in year 1 of undergraduate medicine in Europe, but I've always had the goal of working as a doctor in Australia. I considered doing medical school in Australia, but as I didn't have PR and had no way of getting it, I figured the school was impossible to afford and instead went to a university in my country. After further research this year, I fear that I might have made a mistake in choosing to go into medicine instead of a different undergraduate degree, one that I like and is also on the skilled independent visa list of jobs. I feel like it would have been a better investment to do one of those degrees / get a job in university in the same field to be able to apply for a skilled independent visa upon completion and thus get affordable medical school in Australia. While I don't know if this is actually true, I realised this too late into the year to be able to apply for a different degree next year. So I am stuck doing undergraduate medicine abroad as of now.
Assuming I do do a medical degree in my home country and then decide to come into Australia the harder way, would it actually be possible to get into any good residency? I somewhat understand that you need to complete some tests and an internship and that they are hard to get without PR, this being before being able to go into a specific residency, but I keep hearing that almost every spot is already filled, just by the home/international students who graduated from Australian universities alone. While I do think I would like some competitive fields, such as neurosurgery, most of the other fields that I think I like are in research, especially ones like neurology and pathology. I couldn't find any information regarding competitiveness of research residencies in regards to international students. Is it even possible to get into such a residency as one? Does anyone know how competitive admissions for these are? Do hospitals have a list of available residencies, as I saw a few in the main cities and it definitely seems to me like there are less options than were available on the US hospital pages. Also are all residencies available for international students, or are certain ones restricted even if they weren't already filled by Australian students.
Another question I have regards the part where any international student, even one who completed their degree within Australia, has to do rural work for some years before being allowed to practise elsewhere. My first question is does this exclude all cities? I recall seeing somewhere, for example, that all of Northern Territory is counted as an area of need in regards to this, even the large city of Darwin. While I am not sure if this is true or not, does this restriction apply to having to complete the residency in such an area as well, or is this after its completion? How would one learn a specific residency when restricted to a rural area, let alone be able to practise it? I am assuming a neurosurgeon would not have much opportunity to practise their field at all. Would they be forced to practise general medicine during those years? I ask because, honestly, for me being a GP is currently nearest the bottom of my list of choices.
This mostly concludes my list of questions. Sorry for posting this wall of text and all of these questions, most of which have doubtlessly been asked before, I really should have asked for advice before making the mistake of applying in the first place. Thank you for reading and I would deeply appreciate any answers or advice you could give, as I am uncertain of the correct path to take as of now.
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